Sony's filing with the US Federal Communications Commission has revealed the company's plans for a new PlayStation 3 console, dubbed the 4000 series.

The specific model name in question is "CECH-4001x", where "x" stands for different hard disk configurations. Note that Sony's PS3 Slim belongs to the 3000 series, which brought about significant size, weight and consumption improvements to the previous version.

It is thought that the new model will be an even slimmer and cheaper version of the company's popular console. PlayStation 4 isn't expected until the end of 2013 and Sony seems to think the PS3 can be milked for a bit more, the slimmer version being a perfect candidate for such a move.

Although it's not quite an actual proof, Eurogamer quoted one Sony's executive who, when asked whether an even slimmer version of PS3 is possible, said "Never say never". He pointed out that hardware guys always look for ways to make devices smaller and cheaper, but we guess we'll see soon enough.

Sources tell us that Sony is apparently developing an even smaller and slimmer PlayStation 3, or so we are led to believe. Of course, with Gamescom around the corner and the upcoming holiday season, a smaller unit with a number of cost reductions could equal a significant price cut that could help Sony capture new customers or maybe attract those who want to add it a second console.

While Sony has publically said that they have not announced anything yet, they go on to state that they would never say never about another reduction in cost and size that might be right around the corner. We suspect this could be an indication that the company is at least thinking about it, if it isn’t in development already.

How and what Sony might revise to make the PlayStation 3 cost less is a matter of much discussion. A hardware expert we spoke with suggests that a company’s engineers will seek savings in all of the standard places; and given the configuration makeup of parts used in the unit it could be difficult, but not impossible. Of course, the question is really whether the development costs yield enough of a return on its investment for Sony to move in this direction.

The Tame Apple Press, which gets excited over everything that Apple makes, has had a bit of a brain fart when it comes to Jobs Mob's latest inovation.According to Reuters, Jobs' Mob is pushing for the adoption of smaller sim cards for smartphones.

If Apple gets its way and a smaller SIM card, then the microSIM found in the iPad and iPhone 4, will be standardised. Apparently the fruity cargo cult is trying to persuade wireless carriers worldwide to use the SIM card.

All that is fair enough, but the Tame Apple press did not think that story was sexy enough. We did a Google search and a number of them were reporting that the Sim will enable Jobs' Mob to come up with “thinner” phones and iPads. In this headline for example it is implied.

The downside of this is that a Sim card is pretty thin already and a smaller sim card would be er... the same thickness. If Jobs gets telcos to use the smaller Sims, it will not make the slightest difference to the thickness of the gadgets.

Given the lay out of most phones the size of the Sim will probably not change much in the external design of the phone at all. Still that never stopped the Tame Apple Press from attempting to give Jobs' Mob a free advert.